Questions

As a returning player on Dragonbrand I have some questions that have been nagging me,

Why is Dragonbrand constantly in matchups that we get utterly destroyed in, last week was Jade Quarry, this week is Crystal Desert, both weeks we have had HoD? Why are we not fighting servers that are our tier or one tier higher/lower (if we are at the bottom then just 1 tier higher)

The FAQ says each world (or BL or w/e) has a set number of slots for each server and they are all equal, why then was CD able to zerg everything we own today w/ 60+ people while Dragonbrand, with everyone they could muster and with a 20+ person queue to get onto the Eternal Battlegrounds could not even mount a meaningful defense? if numbers are equal and we are backed up to our only keep, there is a 20 man queue to get into the Eternal Battlegrounds for Dragonbrand, logic dictates that almost everyone able should have been there defending right? so what gives (and no there was one commander tag on the map at the time and he was defending the keep, not one somewhere else)?

Are warriors even useful in WvW anymore, my character sees a red circle of death it's dead nevermind all the classes that somehow stealth or teleport out of your range only to come back and nearly one shot you w/ what ends up being several skills?

Whats this I'v heard about servers being shut down? Dragonbrand is my characters home, I don't really want to be forced to leave it, hopefully someone w/ knowledge about this can explain how the servers will be merged and who will be left.

thanks and I apologize if these are overly noobish.

1 - Tiers. Since DB is in last tier, and can not drop any lower, the 2 servers finishing 2nd and 3rd will always remain same. In every tier above last winnder of the match moves up 1 tier and loser of the match moves down 1 tier (in top tier only 3rd server moves down). So if you do not win this week T4, your server and whoever came second will stay there but the server who won T4 will move to T3 for next week. Server who came 3rd in T3 this week will drop to T4 for next match.

The server rankings that were used earlier to create matches have been removed long ago (year? 2?) because it made near impossible to change tiers and so same 3 servers were locked in same match for many months. Current system quarantees that at least 1 (in T2 and T3 even 2) servers will change every week.

2 - Not all zergs are same quality. Not all zergs are even same numbers, you could have queue and still only get 10-15 people on tag. Maybe the comm is not liked in server. Maybe people want to lose the objective so they can recapture it later for daily.

Some zergs are tagless and TS-less, without comm to organise and talk through movements.

Then there are zergs that have a tag, and some people in TS, but are basically gathered up from random players with random classes, random builds and various level of experience playing in WvW. Sometimes they spread people into parties so everyone get stability and condi removal, and they may call out ranged damage or "push here" but that is pretty much limit of their skill.

Now, there are also more skillful zergs that are largely made from single guild. They have base of 10-20 people from same guild, trained to move together, using specific classes and builds that combine well, and again, have trained together for long time. They could accept more people into zerg to improve damage or healing or roam on the side, but the base is still highly trained group.

For example in Deso is a guild called "Killblob" that runs 30+ members open tag raids with pugs. Since no other server bothers with open guild raids that size (they either do closed guild raids or random pug zergs), they really have nobody to fight for many weeks, they simply run over every enemy in few second or enemies change maps to fight each other once the map chat announces "Killblob is here!". I think it has been 4 months now we have been stuck with Deso in T1 so the "Killblob" is desperate to find someone to fight them, they change guild tags, they chase enemies through multiple maps, they jump on every fight between other 2 sides, spawncamp etcetc.

Also just because map has queue does not mean everyone in the map is actively playing. To earn weekly prizes from WvW you need to gather "pips". If you do something like kill enemy or take objective, you increase your pips for this tick. But you can only earn certain amount of pips every tick, so doing "more" like taking another objective or killing another enemy, will not really give you more pips since you have already reached max. Plus your pips start to decay slowly when you do nothing. The result is that number of players log into WvW, do something useful and then simply wait for the pips to tick while they browse the web or read newspaper or eat dinner.

3 - Yes Warriors are useful in zergfights. They cast Winds of Disenchantment or "bubble". You either pop your "no damage taken" skills like Full Counter and run to enemy, pop your bubble within enemy group, wait for your zerg to push there and try to get back to safety before invulnerability runs out. Or you stay on tag, wait for enemy to push and pop your bubble on the tag as defensive measure. Thats pretty much what warriors do now. You can also clean up some downs if bubble is on cooldown.

4 - Anet has announced a plan for fully redesign of WvW server system.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/26547/world-restructuring/p1Notice that the announcement is few months old and we not sure IF, WHEN or HOW exactly it will happen.

according to GW2 Dragonbrand is tier 4, CD dropped from the top of T3 to come down and smack us around, theres T5-8 below us apparently, how come we haven't faced any of them? Also from my understanding JQ is catagorized as a "full" server so how are they only T3, shouldn't they be against Blackgate?

You are looking at some very old and very not updated info. Current Tiers are here:http://gw2stats.com/naThere are 4 Tiers in NA with 12 server left. Smaller servers were "linked" to bigger ones to create these 12 pairs, and these links could be changed around every 2 months.

For example Dragonbrand has currently a linked server Ehmry Bay, so they both fight together even players from EB. But when new relink happens (should be end of the month), EB could be linked to some other server, and some other server could be linked to DB.

Server being FULL has no real relation to the Tier it is in. Some servers play for the Points so they tend to end up in higher tier, and other servers play for the Fights so they usually drop down even when they have more players.

@"Azsouth.3184" said:As a returning player on Dragonbrand I have some questions that have been nagging me,

Why is Dragonbrand constantly in matchups that we get utterly destroyed in, last week was Jade Quarry, this week is Crystal Desert, both weeks we have had HoD? Why are we not fighting servers that are our tier or one tier higher/lower (if we are at the bottom then just 1 tier higher)

The FAQ says each world (or BL or w/e) has a set number of slots for each server and they are all equal, why then was CD able to zerg everything we own today w/ 60+ people while Dragonbrand, with everyone they could muster and with a 20+ person queue to get onto the Eternal Battlegrounds could not even mount a meaningful defense? if numbers are equal and we are backed up to our only keep, there is a 20 man queue to get into the Eternal Battlegrounds for Dragonbrand, logic dictates that almost everyone able should have been there defending right? so what gives (and no there was one commander tag on the map at the time and he was defending the keep, not one somewhere else)?

Are warriors even useful in WvW anymore, my character sees a red circle of death it's dead nevermind all the classes that somehow stealth or teleport out of your range only to come back and nearly one shot you w/ what ends up being several skills?

Whats this I'v heard about servers being shut down? Dragonbrand is my characters home, I don't really want to be forced to leave it, hopefully someone w/ knowledge about this can explain how the servers will be merged and who will be left.

thanks and I apologize if these are overly noobish.

In all honesty, It is because kdr is not a bigger part of the score. Tiers that are stacked with "fight guilds" are able to tank into the lower tiers because the are not after keeps, they are after the low scoring fights. So much more powerful servers can be losing points wise, but are not losing fights at all. There is no merging of servers, only links. Your server will be linked to another to bolster numbers. But there is a new system coming, it will be guilds that ally with one another. You will be able to stay with friends, as long as they are in your alliance. All forms of warrior are very relevant, you can just choose any core, berserker, or spellbreaker and help a fight. Spellbreaker is slightly more accepted due to bubbles blocking projectiles and boon strip, but could lose the fight if meeting either of the other warrior builds in a 1v1. Warrior is almost balanced with each build. As far as necro marks, slightly angle your camera up so you can see them, your path should be to the least red possible. You do not have to follow a tag that just barrels into marks, play the smarter way of avoiding marks whenever possible, even if it means being slightly right or left of the tag. You can be close to the tag but have better positioning than him/her. It is your toon, play in a way that keeps you alive. Survival might be as simple as one piece of gear that is not the right stats. Getting better is polishing your toon to match your playstyle.

Numbers are equal, or maybe equal, provided your pugs don't just go afking everywhere or doing whatever they want in a meaningless way.

Skill level on other hand, can be easily unequal due to stacking. CD or the link is stacked by ex-T1 guilds. DB on the other hand, is a destacked server thus many new players in it now. So, you have a experienced zerg fighting a inexperienced zerg, the result is obvious.

check if ur server has a commander. it helps to rally and get whipped into shape. =)

as for warriors. they are ok. now is the age of pirateships so, focus on timing and patience.